Thesis Outline, due end of Junior Year
CIS majors submit to their advisors and the director a thesis outline at the end of the junior year. These are due at noon on reading day of the spring semester.

The thesis outline should tell an audience of academic non-specialists (that is, CIS majors, faculty advisors, or anyone else at Davidson) what your thesis will do, how, and why.
The outline document, two pages (parts A and B together), should include the following:

A. (for a general academic audience)
1. The "thesis of your thesis" as best as you can know that at this point. Answer the question that your readers have: "What is your thesis?"
2. A brief outline of your thesis, including a breakdown by chapters or sections.
[For examples of senior revised outlines, which are due in December of next year, see those here. Note that these outlines are longer and more detailed that the junior outline.]

B. (for your advisors and for the director)
3. A brief description of several key sources (or experiments, datasets, interviews, etc.) that you know and plan to use.
4. A brief description of any IRB protocols, approvals, etc. necessary for your thesis research. Note explicitly that you have discussed with your advisors the question of IRB relevance to your work.
5. A brief description of your summer plans for research and reading. Include here any grants you have received or that are pending (Dean Rusk, FS&R, DRI, HHMI, Abernethy, etc.; include source and amount).
6. List the fall course schedule you have registered for and the schedule you plan for spring. (This must include the required CIS 495 "Thesis" for fall and CIS 496 "Thesis" for spring.)

Proofread carefully. Sign--virtually--a copy of your outline at the end of the document, under the line  you write that says: "On my honor I have discussed this document and these plans with my CIS advisors." Email this to the director, the program assistant, and your advisors--as an attachment to the same email too all these people at the same time--by the deadline.

Examples:
2011 Junior Year Outline Notes here (pdf).